Chirax team participated in the 16th Femtochemistry Conference, the international meeting on ultrafast dynamics in chemical, physical, and biological processes, held in Trieste. First organized in 1993 in Berlin, the conference has established itself as a leading forum for the international community working on ultrafast phenomena. This year’s edition was hosted by Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, with Majed Chergui, Chirax’s Project Leader — who also chaired the second edition in 1995 in Lausanne — and Claudio Masciovecchio, Chirax’s Senior Scientist, serving as conference chairs.
The event brought together 220 experts from 28 countries, with over 200 participants attending each day—an unprecedented level of sustained engagement throughout the week. FEMTO16 also set a new record for the highest number of scientific contributions ever submitted, with over 250 abstracts received. The exceptional scientific quality made the selection process highly competitive. The final programme featured 18 invited talks, 47 oral presentations and around 190 posters, offering a broad and up-to-date overview of cutting-edge research in the field.
Conference sessions covered a wide range of topics, including:
Attosecond science, Biological dynamics, Chiral dynamics, Gas phase dynamics, Reaction dynamics in liquids, Solid materials, Solvation dynamics, Structural dynamics, along with novel experimental and theoretical methods.
FEMTO16 also marked a significant shift for the field: it was the first edition hosted by a research facility operating a Free Electron Laser (FEL). This reflects an ongoing evolution in femtochemistry, increasingly driven by free-electron lasers and laboratory-based sources. The use of hard X-rays, which provide element-specific chemical selectivity and enable studies with atomic-scale precision, has become essential for investigating matter and ultrafast processes on extremely short timescales. This trend underscores the central role of highly specialized experimental environments in advancing research in this field.
During the IAB meeting, it was announced that the next edition, FEMTO17, will be held in 2027 in Ottawa (Canada), organized by the University of Ottawa, with Michael Schuurmann and Albert Stolow serving as chairs. The following edition will take place in Daejeon, South Korea.
